It's A Wonderful Life

Potty training this child was pretty funny we had to get pictures of him. a picture speaks a thousand words.  SUCCESS!                               Now for the not so cute. Helping traumatized children can be a roller coaster ride. They have many ups and downs in the process of healing and growth. Right now we have a few in the challenging stage. It seems like one likes to live his life there but that is a novel that will never be written. How these downs look and act are not so bad, it's just that it gets tiring especially when you live dancing on egg shells. One of the children cries at the top of their lungs when they don't get their way. They will stomp off waving their arms up and down hitting their sides, hides in the corner and cries the cry of a deep mourn or falls asleep. Sadly the falling asleep happens around 5:00pm so that just doesn't work. This happens about 10 times a day. Another child doesn't like to be corrected even

I woke up this morning to none other than SNOW! I heard a weather report a month or so ago that meteorologists expect it to be a colder than normal fall and warmer than normal winter. Yesterday I looked out at the mountains and was so grateful to see snow. We really need the moisture. But when I saw the snow on my own front lawn and realized the snow was still falling I wasn't as grateful. I brought Clayson in from catching snow flakes on his tongue and said "This is incredible." Clayson responds in awe, "I know, I love the snow". Not quite what I meant. :)

What do 16 year old boys do? Tease their siblings, beg to drive, forget to do their chores and so forth. The best thing 16 year old boys do is gross us out and make us laugh. Hannah (12) was eating some Skittles and Creed decided he wanted some. She only had 3 and put them all in her mouth.  I heard "Wow Hannah this is a really good Skittle". I assumed he took it out of her hands and I told him not to steal. He said "I didn't steal it out of her hands".  No, it was not out of her hand it was worse. He stole it right out of her mouth. I really did teach him about germs. Creed is on the right. Every bit as mischievous as he looks. Handsome boys.

OK, so I am talking about Hyrum and Bria again. I think it is the same phenomenon as when you have a two year old that shows up in all you pictures because they are so cute and after months and months you realize you have no pictures of your other kids. That is just where I am right now. Bria's birthday was September 10th. We bought her a tricycle because all she wanted was a bike and a Barbie. The bike we got her was pretty flimsy so a week or so later we took it back and got a new one. At the same time we bought Hyrum a bike for his birthday and were going to save it until November for his birthday. We hid Hyrum's bike in our closet behind some clothes so he wouldn't see. I put Bria's bike together and let Bria have it. She was so excited and loved her bike. She rode her bike for quite a while then got off to do something else. Hyrum was dancing around in excitement because of the new bike. He ran to Bria and asked if he could ride it. Sadly Bria said no. Hyrum was

This child is so incredibly precious. I have never experienced a person filled with more gratitude. Hyrum thanks Doug and I for everything. He thanks me for taking him to the toilet. He thanks me for food. He thanks me for giving him a bath, holding him, reading him a story, watching him on his bike and everything else you could think of. Today he was playing and I walked in the room where he was. He turned to me with a big grin and said "Thank you mom." I asked why he would thank me and he said "Cuz you came by me". These thank yous are not the run of the mill "thank you because I need to be polite". These words are filled with true feeling and sincere smiles.  For the last two weeks I hear the words "I'm happy" at least 10 times a day. Hyrum is truly happy and you can feel it just by being with him. He attracts people wherever he goes. I am sure his happiness is tied to his sincere gratitude for life and all that he has. Most i

We were invited to record a music video with a family that we know. The took the song "Safe and Sound" from hunger games and redid it as a family project over the summer. The father, 16 year old son and teenage cousin did all the instrumental and the 13 year old daughter sang the song. The 13 year old girl was Pierce's best friend in 6th grade and her 11 year old brother is friends with Casey. I wasn't sure what to expect out of the song but when I heard it I was impressed. They had a movie director hear them sing and wanted to make a music video for the song. This director won a national prize for a film he made last year while at BYU. We gathered at an apple orchard about an hour away and got to be extras in the end of the video. The video should be ready by the end of October. The kids did great and were well behaved and cooperative. Everyone had a good time even though it was hot and took 2 hours longer than expected. There is something about actors and being o

OK, so this may not be coming from a place of charity but sometimes life can be pretty funny. Poor Doug was put in one of those situations that would win the grand prize on America's Funniest Home Videos if only we had a camera going. Who would have thought to have a camera going while working in the sewer, right? A little background. Most homes have their sewage hooked directly up to pipes that run under the street. Where we live the pipes are too shallow to go directly to the street so we have what is called a sewer pump. There is a big bucket that collects the black water then when the bucket gets full the pump will shoot it up the pipes to go to the street pipes. This is all well and good until the pump breaks down and the alarm quits working. This is what we faced over the last few days. If you have ever seen a pump function it is pretty cool. We have a water feature in the front yard and when we clean it someone hoses the rocks down to clean the dirt out. The pool at the